Horrors of underground Metro tragedy recounted
Print Edition
A MANICURED hand touches the train carriage window as a brown swirl of floodwater squeezes up against the tunnel outside — one of many scenes of desperation from an underground tragedy shared across a stunned Chinese social media yesterday.
At least twelve died and five others were injured in the subway flood, according to city authorities, as water coursed below ground on Tuesday evening in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan Province.
At approximately 6pm on Tuesday, Zhengzhou Metro announced a halt to its services. Water had gushed into stations of Metro Line 5 and left over 500 passengers in waist-high floods.
“I was really scared. The most terrible thing was not the water, but the air that was getting thinner and thinner. Many people had symptoms of breathing difficulties,” recalled a female survivor surnamed Li.
Social media platform Weibo and local media outlets carried fragments of the horror — video posts seemingly made as a final testimony — of chest-high and rising water inside carriages as lights went out during the commuter rush hour.
Videos showed platforms submerged by a fast-flowing muddy deluge, while inside commuters stood as the water rose ominously around them, knocking the power out and forcing parents to hold up their children.
One video showed a woman’s hand with painted nails, gently pushing at the carriage window, a stirring sign of incredulity at the surging water level outside — a moment of dread before the inevitable breach of the carriage doors.
“Water was leaking from the cracks in the door, more and more of it, all of us who could, stood on the subway seats,” another woman said on Weibo.
She was making her way home around 5pm when her train halted between two stations close to the city center.
Another user on Weibo recounted being forced back into a carriage after failed attempts to evacuate. “In half an hour, the water level became higher and higher inside the train, from our ankles to our knees to our necks.
“The power went out. Half an hour later it got hard to breathe.”
Survivors said parents lifted their children above the torrent as dread gripped the carriages.
Suddenly the glass was smashed by rescuers, who state media said also cut into the stricken carriages from above to pull the passengers out to safety.
A male survivor named Zhang told state broadcaster CCTV: “My shirt, my backpack — everything I could throw away, I threw away. The people around me clutched onto the railings as about a dozen of us were climbing (out of the tunnel).”
A woman rescued from one of the flooded train carriages related her horror experience to Bingdian Weekly.
Before rescue teams made their way against powerful currents to the flooded train, the situation had already worsened, with water surging up to shoulder height.
“Oxygen was low. Some people began to vomit,” the woman recalled. “Children, pregnant women and the elderly suffered the most, losing their strength after staying in the water for a long time,” she said.
“You could feel a sense of desperation. I even messaged texts to my family and friends in fear of death.”
With despair spreading, people became more disturbed when someone tried to break the windows. But the tone became calmer as those trapped realized the water level outside the car seemed to be steady and fresh air came in after the windows were carefully smashed.
It was then that rescuers showed up, getting access into the carriages through broken windows and orderly evacuating the crowd by pushing and pulling. They were trapped in the train for approximately four hours.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
